its called taking an idea and making it suitable for another type of audience. as far as street fighter goes and the mario bit, mario was first. secondly, the simpsons hit and run may have similar characteristics however the CHARACTERS and plot are totally different. i can go on but i'll end it with this: the formatting is comepletely different and just because you see an orange and a tangerine doesnt mean the tangerine will taste the same, however they do look similar but they are, again comepletely different. thats just my opinion though. rebuttle please. Im in no way trying to be a smart ass. -Gladys

Monkeybutt (what a perfect name), apart from the fact that it looked like you tried to spell every word in your post incorrectly, how cow cool the games are is never in question. The article is about the fact that they copied from other games.

Very true that so many puzzle games are variants of Tetris-- sometimes in a very obvious way. The thing about Tetris itself was you didn't even need to crack it-- you could copy the hell out of the game. Would that have anything to do with it? Hmmmm...

Nintendo didn't add Mario to DDP to make DDP popular though. They didn't think the real SMB2 would be well received in North America, but they needed a Mario 2, so they modified DDP. The NA game was later released in Japan as Super Mario USA, it wasn't about making DDP more popular, they just needed a Mario and then made it Mario everywhere to avoid confusion.

Although I don't think that DDP was a better game, it's the SAME game, with a few minor squabbles aside.

But you are right that Nintendo did create it all. I can only justify it on the list as a question of intention on the part of Nintendo. It's not a rip in the classical sense, and I do admit that much - no consumers were cheated by SMW-HK either.

As to the intention - Different creative works from movies, music, etc. are often tinkered with for release in a different country to reflect what's popular / acceptable in a particular region. But when do those changes reflect exploitation? I think this is certainly one case...would Doki Doki Panic have not been a popular game in the USA had it been released without Mario characters in it? Can anyone think of another situation comparable to SMB2-DDP where a developer has a hit on their hands and then brings it to a different country injected with popular characters? I think gamers today would be really insulted if Nintendo took a popular game from Japan and released in the USA with Link, Zelda, and Gannon shoved into it.

Though this is mostly food for thought...I do hear what you and others are saying and now I'm starting to rethink a little...

"Imagine if Nintendo had bought Doki Doki Panic from another developer and then repackaged it for the US. What real difference is there between that and just slighty changing another company's game (or your own game) and releasing it? Only a question of legality, not a question of how big a rip it is."

The difference isn't about legality, it's about creativity. Nintendo had every right to use Doki Doki Panic and the Mario license because they created them both. And since you think DDP is a better game then the real SMB2 (which has since been released in NA), I don't see how you can claim SMB2US is a rip-off when neither an idea was stolen, or consumers were cheated.

I understand the argument that SMB2 is not a rip-off in a classical sense since it's the same company releasing it for a different market. But I ranked it based on Nintendo's intentions. Imagine if Nintendo had bought Doki Doki Panic from another developer and then repackaged it for the US. What real difference is there between that and just slighty changing another company's game (or your own game) and releasing it? Only a question of legality, not a question of how big a rip it is. But to be fair, SMW-HK isn't a rip-off in a classical sense either. I did point that out in the article under SMW-HK, but still that's fair criticism.

But Simpson's H&R as a PARODY of GTA??? That's like saying Snood is a satire of Bust a Move because of the goofy faces. H&R was marketed as being the greatest Simpson's game to date, overflowing with innovative gameplay. In reality everything from the controls to the missions speak of GTA. It's not like saying every fighting game is a rip off of Street Fighter because there are other plenty of open-ended games where the player has full control over his actions, can explore, make choices in an open environment that don't immediately recall GTA. Fallout, for example, while a bit old, sounds somewhat similar to GTA on paper, but the execution is totally different. The execution of H&R smacks of the GTA universe from start to finish. Now, are there other games that have followed in GTA's footsteps to the point of being considered derivitive? Sure. And a few of you have already pointed those out so...I agree with that. And for the record, I do enjoy the Simpson's Arcade game - I think that was a VERY GOOD game, not just popular. I wish I had a copy of it.

I have to agree with the last two comments, Simpsons Hit and Run was designed to be a parody of GTA, but along with that, the game was really good compared to other GTA-style games(Driver 3??). A better example would have been the previous game, Simpsons Road Rage. Complete rip-off of Crazy Taxi and it was a poorly made game at that. Nice article though, i'm a huge bust-a-move fan.

Those are some pretty harsh graphics on the Chinese version of "Super Mario World". At least now we know what it would be like if the people who did all the redrawn Looney Tunes got their hands on the knowledge of making video games.

Oh man!!!! Dan, that was great!! Clever use of pictures!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm on the phone and typing 1-handed so its hard to type alot, but this was a superb effort. Those Simpsons games were okay--but I like your comparison of SMB2.

Well, yes, I'm aware Nintendo made Doki Doki Panic. And I also realize that Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan was a much harder game. But bottom line is that it was a much WORSE game. I don't buy the idea that Nintendo opted to repackage Doki Doki Panic instead of just releasing SMB2 as it was seen in Japan because it was too hard. It just wasn't good. The sales were terrible in Japan when you compare it to Doki Doki Panic and Nintendo has developed plenty of games that could be considered more or as difficult as the original SMB2.

Also, smoe - you realize I'm talking about SMW-Chinese Edition right? That certain aspect of the Hong Kong hack is certainly from Street Fighter. But fair play that there are other GTA rips, I just picked H&R because of it's big ad campaign / hype.